About My TCOP Training Experience

I was telling a friend that my ‘retirement’ was boring me out of my mind. But then along came TCOP. Actually, my journey from boredom to excitement began when I was first contacted by Cedric. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And to be honest, I was scared and intimidated. I even had some doubts.

“What are these people talking about?” “What in the world is praxis?” “How can any of this stuff be useful at Bethel?”

But the Lord wouldn’t let me back out. Whenever I thought about backing out, intense curiosity took over! When I say, ‘intense’ I mean extreme. I began to trust the process. Then I fell into the process. The more I thought about the training sessions and follow-ups, the more the excitement grew and the less boring my life became.

October 4th, I had no idea what would happen in the morning. But I was waiting in anticipation. October 5th came and I could hardly contain myself. Knots were in my stomach and I couldn’t sit still. Once people began to show up, the excitement was almost overwhelming.

Trust God and trust the process was my mantra for the morning. Knowing that the design team was there to give us a safe place to fall, gave me the confidence to facilitate. It was intimidating at first, but as I saw the light bulbs going off in the faces of the most skeptical of invitees, I wanted to jump and shout! I didn’t sleep that night because I couldn’t come down from the high of the day. Sunday morning I was still floating on air. And I felt a change in the air in the church. A change like a fresh wind had blown through.

I want to thank you for all the training and support you have given us over the past year. And I want to thank you for assuring us that you are not just going to leave us alone.

About the TCOP training; I was blown away learning what I’ve seen all of you do. It was incredible. I only hope, that over time, I can be as proficient, confident and ‘cool’ about facilitating as all of you are.

I am looking forward to the next steps in Bethel’s journey in this Transformational Communities of Praxis initiative. As I told them in our Sunday announcements, “We’re not done!”